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Canadian women dispatch Team GB to join Swiss at top of curling table

Canada beat Great Britain by 9-6 in the fourth round-robin session of the women's curling at the Ice Cube Curling Centre to maintain their perfect record and join Switzerland at the top of the rankings. The session’s other winners were Japan, China and Sweden.

The British team provided Canada with their sternest test so far, and the game came down to a dramatic final stone in the last end, in which GB skip Eve Muirhead missed the opportunity to tie the game and force an extra end.

“We took it right down to the wire,” said a relieved Canadian skip Jennifer Jones.

“Either team could have won…We were in a little bit of trouble and fortunately we were lucky enough not to have to go to the extra end.”

Japan faced hosts Russia and opened up a 5-2 lead going into the eighth end. The Russians fought back with a score of two points in the eighth end but Japan kept themselves in front with a single point in the ninth.

In the tenth end, Russian skip Anna Sidorova left herself with too much to do with her last stone and Japan claimed another two-point steal to clinch an 8-4 win.

“We needed to move up the table today to get to the play-offs, so the win was very important to us,” beamed Japan skip Ayumi Ogasawara. “[Russia] are very strong competitors, so to beat them today made us very happy.”

Meanwhile, China beat USA by 7-4 in a match that was tightly contested until the eighth end when Chinese skip Bingyu Wang produced a moment of magic to give her side a two-point lead, and another two points in the final end sealed the result.

“We still missed some rocks today but we knew we needed a result so we were ready to play and we're pleased to win,” said Wang afterwards.

Sweden defeated Republic of Korea, also 7-4. This game turned in the fifth end when Korean skip Jisun Kim overplayed her final draw, leaving Sweden's fourth player Maria Prytz the chance for a three-pointer and a 4-2 lead.

The Swedes consolidated in the eighth to hold on for an important win which pushed them into third place in the rankings.

“The Koreans are a good team, but we felt we were in charge all the way through,” reflected Swedish skip Margaretha Sigfridsson. “There were a few moments where we needed to think about what to do, but they weren't very hard decisions."